News

Colby will test its new emergency siren on Wednesday, March 26, between 10 a.m. and noon. The test will include a loud tone or tones and a voice message expected to be audible within about two miles. School shootings around the country have prompted colleges and universities nationwide to reassess and bolster emergency response plans, and Colby added the siren to expand its ability to alert students, faculty, visitors, and the Colby community about a potential life-threatening emergency.

For his decade of work as program director of a camp for children affected by HIV/AIDS and his solo show, Sigh/Omelas, inspired by that experience, Steve Kidd '97 will be honored with a 2008 Lewis Hine Award for Service to Children and Youth from the National Child Labor Committee. The awards are given annually to 10 relatively unknown men and women for their efforts on behalf of the health, education, and welfare of children and youth, particularly those at risk.

Toys containing unsafe levels of lead and toxic chemicals made news in recent months and, in Maine, the issue has moved from headlines to the legislature, where lawmakers are considering a bill addressing toxic chemicals in children's products. Students in a course titled The Environment and Human Health are focusing on this issue and held a public forum on March 19 for residents to learn more about the issue and the legislation.

Introduced by Professor of Science, Technology, and Society Jim Fleming as "an individual of world historical significance whose work has literally saved the planet's ozone shield and preserved life on earth," Nobel Laureate F. Sherwood Rowland delivered the keynote address at the 57th annual Colby Leadership Institute on March 14. Rowland discussed his research on the theme of this year's institute: climate change and global warming.

A state Department of Transportation plan to address deteriorating roads in Waterville by giving full control of Mayflower Hill Drive through campus to Colby was aired in City Council chambers Wednesday. Colby will own the road, with plans to spend $5 to 7 million to rebuild it, beginning this fall at the earliest. President William Adams assured residents at the hearing that he expects the road will remain open as a through route indefinitely. The Morning Sentinel covered the hearing.

The space shuttle Endeavour took off early March 11 with a former Colby student on board. On this, his fourth mission, astronaut and veterinarian Richard M. Linnehan '80 will conduct three of the five spacewalks, reports The New York Times. One of his trips involved upgrading the Hubble Space Telescope.

Women's ice hockey beat first-seed powerhouse Middlebury in overtime Saturday to earn a spot in the championship round of the NESCAC tournament, which eventually was won by Amherst. Men's ice hockey finished the regular season with the best record in NESCAC. Senior TJ Kelley was named NESCAC player of the year and head coach Jim Tortorella is NESCAC coach of the year, and Colby dominated the first-team conference all-stars list.

Vincent Lebrun-Fortin '11 earned All-America honors in slalom and giant slalom at the NCAA Skiing Championships in Montana. He placed fifth in the slalom event, for first-team All America honors, and seventh in GS, for second-team All-America. Also at the skiing nationals, the eastern champion Colby men's Nordic team placed sixth in the 10K freestyle, best among eastern schools, and 12th in the classical race. See the athletics site for complete sports coverage.

Women's ice hockey will play for the NESCAC championship at 1 p.m. Sunday, after defeating Middlebury 3-2 in overtime on Saturday. Watch the action live at www.d3cast.com. In other sports news, Vincent Fortin-Lebrun '11 earned his second All-America honor finishing fifth in the nation in Division I slalom. See all sports news at www.colby.edu/athletics.

Men's and women's NESCAC ice hockey tournaments will be Webcast this weekend, with Colby men and women both playing at 1 p.m. Saturday. The women play Middlebury at Middlebury; the men are hosts for their final-four tournament and take on the Trinity Bantams at Alfond Rink. Other semifinal games, both at 4 p.m. Saturday, also will be webcast. Winners will meet in the finals at 1 p.m. Sunday, with live webcasts. Follow the link from Colby's athletics page or go straight to www.d3cast.com.

The evening before his concert at Colby, sarod player and music artist in residence Aditya Verma will appear on WCSH-6's "207," Friday, March 7, at 7 p.m. A disciple of the legendary sitar player Ravi Shankar and renowned sarod master Aashish Khan, Verma will offer a concert of traditional North Indian music on Saturday at 7:30 in Lorimer Chapel.

Robert Diamond '73, a world leader in international finance, will deliver the commencement address at Colby's 187th Commencement ceremonies on Sunday, May 25. An economics major and one-time university instructor, Diamond is president of Barclays PLC and chief executive of Investment Banking and Investment Management for the London-based bank. He is the architect of the strategies that have produced record performances for Barclays across these divisions, and he will be a Colby parent when his son Charlie joins the Class of 2012 next fall.

Qiamuddin Amiry '09 caught the attention of the Afghan embassy with a scholarship program he established at Gould Academy in Maine. An article titled "Afghan Student Pays Good Fortune Forward" describes his efforts to bring two top Afghan students to the U.S. Gerry Boyle's earlier column in Colby magazine described the sometimes tense negotiations required in Kabul.

The latest issue of insideColby magazine, with articles and photos by Colby students, is now online. Feature stories explore the faculty resident program, Colby's a cappella phenomenon, Carter Professor of Mathematics Fernando Gouvea's unique style, and senior Christina Feng's work to encourage financial literacy in Maine. And, of course, it's full of photos showing campus life (and more). Check it out at insidecolby.com.

"Maine's northern forests are unlike other large open lands in the lower 48 states," writes Peter Sly, Mellon Fellow in Environment and Justice, in the March 4 Morning Sentinel. After outlining questions and controversies raised by a land development company's plans, he urges partisans in the debate to "focus on interests and not positions," and to "listen very carefully, particularly to those with whom you generally disagree." He also plugs a related Goldfarb Center conference March 13-14.

Because it finished the regular season with the best record in the conference, the men's ice hockey team will play host to the NESCAC final four tournament March 8-9 after defeating Wesleyan 4-1 in a quarterfinal match Saturday. The Mules face sixth seed Trinity at home in the Alfond Rink Saturday at 1 p.m. Women's ice hockey also advanced to the NESCAC final four with a 3-1 win over Conn College and will play Middlebury at Middlebury March 8.

With a winter storm delivering a foot of snow to Maine, the Colby Jazz Quartet concert with Mark Tipton originally scheduled for Saturday night has been postponed. Women's and men's NESCAC quarterfinal ice hockey games are still on for Saturday afternoon at the Alfond Rink. The jazz concert will be rescheduled, with a new date to be announced next week.

After 20 years of studying women's health issues, Alice Domar '80 has some advice for women: Stop trying to be perfect. Domar, who was profiled in the Feb. 25 Boston Globe, is executive director of the Domar Center for Mind/Body Health in Waltham, Mass., and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. "I work with a lot of cancer patients, and they don't sweat it if there are dishes in the sink or they gain 5 pounds," she told the paper. "But you shouldn't have to go through something like that to wake up."